For Dan Reardon, it's East vs. West, not McKinley vs. Massillon

Friday

The annual all-star game will feature the rivalry's coaches for just the second time

Every McKinley coach is measured by his record against Massillon, but for Pups coach Dan Reardon, next week’s East-West game is just that: East vs. West.

“I think it’s fun for the fans and everyone else, but for me, I don’t know that it adds anything more,” said Reardon, who will coach the East squad against West coach Nate Moore of Massillon. “That said, it’s still a football game, I’m coaching in it and I’m trying to win.”

For the first time since 2006 — and just the second time in the Canton Repository-Malone University East-West All-Star Football Game’s 29-year history — the Massillon and McKinley coaches will face off on opposing sidelines. In 2006, the Bulldogs’ Brian Cross led the East to a 14-3 victory over the Tigers’ Tom Stacy.

Although eight former Bulldogs will be on the East roster, Reardon knows he’ll spend the first few practices yelling out numbers, not names.

“There are plenty of guys on the roster who were not opponents of ours, so you don’t have much familiarity with them other than seeing their name in the Saturday morning paper,” he said. “So you have to get familiar with what they’re good at in a short amount of time. You’re asking, ‘Who is the best receiver here?’ ‘Who is our best cover corner?’ And you only have a short period of time to teach what you’re doing, so you need to keep (game plans) relatively simple.”

Reardon’s overall approach is simple, too.

“The first thing is, all these guys are very good players and everyone is going to play, so you want to give everyone a chance to show what they can do,” he said. “The second part is, everyone is there to compete, players and coaches alike. So you’re trying to win the game. The third thing is having fun in the process. Sometimes in an all-star game, you maybe throw in a trick play and do things to feature kids and have fun.

“I think that’s what it’s all about.”

While Reardon will try to guess what the West team might do — either based on the personnel or what he knows of Moore’s teams — there’s no pregame scouting. That makes it fun, too, he said.

“You’re kind of coaching on the run,” he said.

Although Reardon has been a head coach every year since 2004, this is his first time serving as the head coach of an all-star game. While at Youngstown Ursuline, he was an assistant in two Jack Arvin Classics (which pits Mahoning County against Trumbull County) and also helped coach the Ohio squad in the Big 33 game. Last year, he helped coach the North team in Ohio’s North-South game.

When asked for his record in those games, he laughed and said, “I didn’t know they kept track of all-star game records.”

For the record, he’s 2-2.

“But this is the first one where I was tabbed as the head coach, so technically I’m 0-0,” he said.

As for Reardon’s record against Massillon? It’s 1-2. But he’ll get a chance to change at the end of October.

Next week’s game is merely a warmup for the 2018 season.

“That’s the nice thing about this game, in particular,” he said. “It’s relatively late in the summer compared to most all-star games, so it kind of kicks off next season and still gives fans and players one more chance to see these guys who have graduated before they go on to college.

“It kind of whets your appetite a little bit.”

Reach Joe at 330-580-8573 or

joe.scalzo@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @jscalzoREP

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